Rotary atomizers including those with center feed designs are well known in the painting and coating arts. In particular, such devices have in the past tended to suffer from the problem of an area in the center of the cup or bell allowing dried paint to accumulate thereon which thereafter flakes off and lands on the work surface thereby harming the finish on the work surface.
Rotary atomizers have also tended to suffer from the problem of incomplete coating of the atomizing surface in the process of feeding paint from the feed chamber to the surface of the bell. In such devices, the paint is typically fed through a number of apertures but the materials between the apertures tends to cause streaks or dry areas on the bell surface during operation. Rotary atomizers also tended to be fairly bulky because of the precision bearings required and the high speeds at which they were run.
Such prior art devices have further suffered from the problem of wrapback, that is, paint tends to become deposited on the exterior surfaces of the turbine and drive housing.